Subject:      Re: A million places in a million worlds
From:         blake1001@technologist.com
Date:         1998/03/20
Message-ID:   <6eue20$qns$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
Newsgroups:   alt.games.whitewolf

In article <3510631E.FD80CFCB@online.no>,
  Morten Njaa <njaad@online.no> wrote:
>
> Just wondering,
> we got the the high umbra, the middle umbra, the low umbra, the near
> dreaming, the far dreaming, the deep dreaming, the deep umbra, the
> horizon, the penumbra , The Mist, the gauntlet ETC ETC ETC.....
> .
> Is there a simple way to work these consepts together? Any simple
> solutions to this problem? I have a hard time figuring out if what is
> what!

Simple?  I'll try.  (Remember, I'm trying to just present a concept,
it's not going to be consistent with any one game's rules or
descriptions.  So the following is *not* cannon.)

The only one of these places that has to coincide with the others
at all, is the Penumbra - the part of the mystical world that precisely
corresponds to the real world.  In the Penumbra, any supernaturals of
different types pretty much have to be aware of eachother, and though
thier perceptions will be different, they cannot be radically so.

Once you leave the Penumbra, anything goes, and nothing needs to
correspond to anything else, or even be consistent.  A single realm
in the Umbra, can be physically infinite, and can contain within it,
any number of seemingly infinite sub-realms, or gateways to other
realms.  There's no telling which realm is 'bigger' or 'more real'
than any other or which is a subset of which.  Thus, Werewolves can
see the Middle Umbra as comprising the otherworlds, with the Magely
'High Umbra' nothing but a few rarified 'realms of thought.'  And the
Dreaming could be thought of as a single Umbral Realm, or as a vast
uber-realm that subsumes the Umbrae and otherworlds of all the other
supernaturals.  It just doesn't matter.  You can come up with a whole
over-set of parrelles worlds, each with thier own Gaia and Umbra or
a plethora of alternate timelines, of which ours is only one, and it
could still be defined - by someone you show it to - as a single realm
of no great import.

In otherwords, once you leave the real world and the Penumbra behind,
you have carte blanche.

You can think of the supernatural WoD as having 4 levels.

1.The Real World, physical reality, is consistent, and shared by all.

2.The Penumbra - sepparated from the Real World by the Gauntlet,
but still occupying the same space, and containing aproximately
the same things and locations in a one-to-one correspondence - is
also fairly consistent, and shared by all the supernaturals (though
many never visit it), but how it appears is shaped by the visitor
(The Book of Worlds calls this 'Videre').  Thus, if a particular
building exists in the Penumbra, it can be seen and entered by
any supernatural visiting it - but, it will be seen differently:
A Werwolf will see a construct of Weaver Webs, a mage (depending on
his paradigm) might see an idealized or minimalist building, a
Wraith will see a decayed shell of a structure, a changeling a cold
stone repository of Banality, and a Vampire, a darkly gothic version
of the building (perhaps).  All five supernaturals could meet in the
building, interact, and note all the same objects and such that exist
in the building.  You can change the names of the Penumbra and Gauntlet -
it could be the Shadowlands and the Shroud, for instance - but it
doesn't really matter.

3.The Near Umbra is the collection of realms that have been shaped by
thought, belief, experience, or whatever.  Each realm is more or less
internally consistent, but which realms you find are entirely dependent
on what you go looking for.  There can be any number of such realms
an they can touch upon eachother, the Deep Umbra, Penumbra, and (through
the Gauntlet) the Real World.  The relative size of such realms, and
which realm is a subset of which is unknowable and irrellevant.  All of
the Realms, and even the so-called, Great Enigmas, can be conceptualized
as Umbral Realms.  How you organize and prioratize the Near Umbra (by
whatever name you call it) is just a matter of preference.  Again, you
can call the Near Umbra whatever you want, Space, alternate realities,
the Dreaming, it doesn't matter.

4.The Deep Umbra, sepparated from the Near by the Horizon, is the alien
outer realms that are not touched or shaped by any belief beyond what
the visitor brings with him.  The Deep Umbra is a place of ultimate,
unknowable mystery.

ie:


REAL WORLD    *  <---- you are here
-------------------------------------GAUNTLET/SHROUD/WHATEVER---------
PENUBMRA      *  <---- you are here, too

NEAR UMBRA (HIGH/MIDDLE/LOW/DREAMING/DIGITAL WEB/ALTERNATE WORLDS/ETC...)
              *  <----- if you're a mage you'll probably go here
                    *  <----- if you're a garou you'll go here
                         * <---- if you're a wraith you're stuck here
if you're Fey, you're here --->*
if you're a Vdept, you'd rather be here ---> *
If you're a VE,  theoretically, you might be here ---->*

============================HORIZON===================================

DEEP UMBRA    (you don't belong here)

---                                           |
Blake 1001, Virtual Adept, Disciple        ---|-.
http://www.oocities.org/Area51/1317/         '-|---
                                                |

"Help! I'm in the Deep Umbra and I don't have Spirit 5!"
=================================================================


  " 
  900: PRINT "This Digital Web Sector interfaces with Consensual Reality
thru GeoCities." 
  901: PRINT "Move one step closer to Virtual Ascension by getting your own
Free Home Page ."   
  990: PRINT "All writing in this site (excepting Trademarks of White Wolf
Game Studios) is Copyrighted, 94, 97 by Tony Vargas" 
  999: END OF FILE